IPYS Instituto Prensa y Sociedad Venezuela
On August 22, 2013, Nicmer Evans, political analyst, denounced that he decided to withdraw from the Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV), a state-owned radioelectric circuit based in Caracas, where he conducted a space called Memoria Ampliada. The politologist informed that he took this decision after the media reduced the airing time “exactly after having interviewed Alberto Nolia”, a journalist who conducted the program entitled Los Papeles de Mandinga, which was taken off the scheduling grid of Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the state´s principal channel.
Evans also pointed out that private portal Noticias24.com decided to cease publishing his weekly opinion columns and in April, Canal I, a private open-signal television station based in Caracas, “abruptly” pulled his political analysis program “Cara o Sello” off the air.
This was referred to in an opinion article published in sociopolitical analysis portal Aporre.com, written by Nicmer Evans, who has openly expressed his sympathy to the government led by the now defunct ex-president Hugo Chávez (http://www.aporrea.org/medios/a172172.html). IPYS Venezuela attempted to contact Evans on several opportunities, to obtain his testimony on this incident, but was unable to do so.
In Aporrea.com the political analyst indicated: “As of this week I shall no longer be at the helm of Memoria Ampliada which I have hosted for two years on RNV, the cause: dignity, the same as professor Vladimir Acosta and Toby Valderrama showed when they decided to withdraw from that radio station after the sudden change in schedule of their shows. My show´s time was reduced from one hour and 45 minutes to 20 minutes, exactly after interviewing Alberto Nolia. Simply put, I prefer not to continue where I am not well received except for a reason of convenient political esthetics.
I should have taken that same stance with Noticias 24, since I was informed –which I appreciate- that my weekly column shall not continue to be published due to ´external pressures´, and I was offered to continue in multimedia program ´a ver qué pasa´. This thing of half being here and half not in reality does not go down well with me. I will make it easy for them. I am leaving but not without first warning that my critical, loyal, propositive and committed vision with Chavism shall not be silenced. They shall never be able to silence what the people think and what their opinions are and what they reason in the street. While I was there in those media I was a mere instrument of those who have no voice but they shall continue to be for now without my voice but with their own”.
“Ironically, RNV and Noticias 24 responded exactly the same to power pressures. I want to thank those who can do no other thing than to keep silent but who know that socialism is constructed with honesty, solidarity, transparency and much struggle”, he added in his column.
This case is added to the 12 internal censorship alerts reported by IPYS Venezuela in the course of 2013, in public and private media, affecting spaces for sociopolitical denunciations and freedom of opinion.
Regarding the withdrawal of programs from state-owned media during May, RNV reported the pulling off the air of De primera Mano and Un grano de Maíz opinion programs, hosted by show hosts Vladimir Acosta and Antonio Aponte –known as Toby Valderrama (http://ipys.org.ve/alerta?id=3497&y=2013&m=05).
The first days of August, Los Papeles de Mandinga, conducted by Alberto Nolia, was taken off the air, while 2 months earlier La Hojilla, hosted by Mario Silva had been withdrawn (http://ipys.org.ve/search.aspx?search=%22censura+interna%22+vtv+2013).
Label: internal censorship
